1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus which efficiently executes a diagnosis/analysis protocol aiming measurement, in a contrast echo method mainly used for transient diagnosis.
2. Description of the Related Art
By ultrasonic diagnosis, pulsation of a heart and motion of an embryo can be obtained as real time display by a simple operation of contacting an ultrasonic probe from the body surface, and high safety can be ensured. Therefore, inspection can be repeatedly performed. In addition, the scale of the system is smaller compared with other diagnosis apparatuses using X-rays, CT, MRI, and the like, so it is convenient that inspection can also be easily performed after moving to the bed side. It is also advantageous that there are no influences of exposure unlike the case of using X-rays.
A photography method based on this ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus is a contrast echo method using an ultrasonic contrast agent of vein application type. For example, in this contrast method, an ultrasonic contrast agent is injected through a vein to strengthen a blood signal in inspection on a heart, a ventral organ, or the like, for the purpose of evaluating blood kinetics. In many contrast agents, micro bubbles serve as a reflection source, and the contrast effect increases as the injection amount and concentration increase. Meanwhile, it has been found that bubbles are broken by ultrasonic irradiation due to the characteristic of the base material of bubbles, so that the contrast effect time is shortened or so.
In recent years, many developments have been made in the quantitative analysis method for evaluating blood kinetics. The most basic method is the measurement of a so-called time intensity curve (TIC) in which the process of strengthening an echo signal in an interested area after application of a contrast agent is traced and time-based change of the luminance thereof is expressed in form of a graph.
In general, in quantitative analysis, even if the method is logically proper, deterioration of the precision in analysis can be easily expected unless measurement data which matches with the analysis is obtained. Factors which deteriorate the analysis precision exist in many aspects, e.g., the doctor who scans a patient with use of the system, the inspection engineer (hereinafter the person who uses an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus is simply called an xe2x80x9coperatorxe2x80x9d), organic functions of a patient, and the like.
For example, the factors existing in the body of the diagnosis system are considered to be the cases that the essential S/N ratio of the system is too low to obtain a signal sufficient for analysis, the output signal of the system becomes non-uniform in the plane of a diagnosis fault under influences of organic attenuation or the like so that the analysis values differ between respective parts.
Factors existing in the operator are considered to be a case that a cross-section shifts gradually without intentions even if it is necessary to record continuously image information of one same cross-section, and the like.
Factors existing in the organic functions are considered to be deterioration of analysis precision, based on breath or fluctuation of heartbeat. For example, change of the blood speed due to pulsation is an undesired phenomenon if the analysis assumption is a constant flow.
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation and has an object of providing a support function to reduce the error factor of analysis as much as possible or when a diagnosis protocol mainly aiming measurement is executed, or an analysis method using the function.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for scanning inside of a subject with an ultrasonic wave to obtain a cross-sectional image comprises: an image generator configured to generate a reference image in which a portion as a reference for holding an equal cross-section is extracted from an image being diagnosed; and a display device configured to display the reference image as a still image, superimposed on a motion image.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for scanning inside of a subject applied with a contrast agent, with an ultrasonic wave, to obtain a cross-sectional image, comprises: a display device configured to display an ultrasonic image; a specification device configured to allow an operator to specify an area of the ultrasonic diagnosis image displayed; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave such that a focus point of transmitting ultrasonic wave is varied to exist in the area specified by the specification device.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprises: a memory configured to store a plurality of diagnosis image groups in each of which a plurality of diagnosis images collected at a pre-determined cycle based on an organic signal of a subject are arranged based on time; and a display device configured to display simultaneously the plurality of diagnosis image groups such that time phases in the predetermined cycle correspond between the groups.
According to a forth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprises: an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave to a subject and receive the ultrasonic wave from the subject; a receiving unit configured to obtain electrocardiogram signal; a generator configured to generate an ultrasonic image based on the signal received by the ultrasonic probe; and an analyzer configured to analyze a luminance change curve based on the ultrasonic image obtained when the electrocardiogram signal is at one same heartbeat phase.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprises: an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave to a subject and receive the ultrasonic wave from the subject; a generator configured to generate ultrasonic images based on the signal received by the ultrasonic probe; a memory configured to store a reference image which is an ultrasonic image to adjust a scan position; and a display device configured to display the ultrasonic images generated by the generator as a real-time motion image, superimposed the reference image.
According to the configuration described above, it is possible to realize an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising a support function to reduce factors causing analysis errors as much as possible when a diagnosis protocol aiming measurement is executed, and an analysis method using the function.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.